The FBI plans to roll out the face recognition component of its massive Next Generation Identification (NGI) biometrics database this summer—but the Bureau has six years of catching up to do in explaining to Americans exactly how it plans to collect, use and protect this data. Today we called on Attorney General Eric Holder to do just that.

A federal judge today ordered the Department of Justice to hand over key opinions by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (also known as the “FISA court”) so the judge can directly review whether information about mass surveillance was improperly withheld from the public.

As of this morning, with 22,353 of 22,353 precincts reporting, voters approved Proposition 42, a ballot measure that ensures that local agencies must comply with the California Public Records Act (CPRA). The final tally for the Public's Right to Know Act was 61.5 percent for, 38.5 percent against—a landslide for transparency.

Many news reports have focused on Section 215 of the Patriot Act (used to collect all Americans' calling records) and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act (FAA) (used to collect phone calls, emails and other Internet content) as the legal authorities supporting much of the NSA's spying regime. Both laws were passed by Congress and are overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court). However, it's likely that the NSA conducts much more of its spying under the President's claimed inherent powers and only governed by a document originally approved by President Reagan titled Executive Order 12333.